In the twenty-eighth year of Anyuan.
The imperial prison of the capital.
Inside the dark and damp dungeon, the air reeked of rot and decay.
In the deepest part of the dungeon, a jailer unlocked a cell door, prodded the young girl collapsed on the floor with his foot, and barked, "Your three years are up. Time to get out."
The girl slowly rose, her fingers, numb with cold, curling slightly.
In the dim light, her pale, almost ghostly small face was crisscrossed with several bloody scratches.
Startled by the chilling, sudden gaze she fixed on him, the jailer felt a sharp surge of unease.
He urged her roughly to move along.
Not until the girl's figure had completely vanished from the dungeon did the jailer heave a heavy sigh of relief.
"We've finally gotten rid of that lunatic."
"If that Young Miss Gu had stayed in the dungeon any longer, we'd have lost our lives for sure. She's nothing short of a mad dog!"
At that moment, the mad dog in question, Gu Qiurong, stood dressed in prison garb outside the imperial prison.
Though the biting winter wind blew, she stood thin and frail, her figure unmoving.
"Young Miss, this is an outer robe I begged the jailer for. Please put it on."
Her maid, Qingzhi, draped a tattered outer robe over Gu Qiurong's shoulders.
Gu Qiurong's posture remained entirely frozen.
Three years. It had passed in the blink of an eye.
Everything that happened three years ago was still vivid in her mind.
Gu Qiurong was the true young mistress of the Marquis Estate who had been lost and raised outside. Before the age of ten, she had lived in the back courtyard of the Marquis Estate as the lowliest of foot-washing maids.
In her tenth year, everyone in the Pingding Marquis Estate discovered the truth about the wet nurse swapping the infants.
How could the Marquis and his wife ever accept that the daughter they had poured their hearts and souls into raising was the spawn of a servant, while their own flesh and blood had been treated as a lowly slave, ordered about and humiliated at will?
Filled with guilt, the Marquis and his wife had brought Gu Qiurong back with tear-filled eyes, pitying the hardships she had suffered over the years and wishing to make amends for the wrongs done to her.
At first, they truly had tried to make amends.
Yet she was only a former foot-washing maid—uncouth, dim-witted, and ignorant of decorum.
The fake young mistress, Gu Lingwei, was a young lady carefully nurtured by the Marquis Estate, well-read, graceful, and poised.
Compared side by side, Gu Qiurong became a laughingstock.
At her elder brother's birthday banquet, she was framed for theft, and all the noble ladies watched her in distress and fluster as she tried to explain, sneering at her lack of upbringing and propriety.
When presented to the Empress in the imperial palace, she tried to imitate the etiquette Gu Lingwei had taught her, only to make a fool of herself in front of the high-ranking noble matrons.
When she discovered that the eldest young miss of the Marquis Estate had been deceived by a scoundrel and tried her best to stop it, she was instead accused of being jealous of a good marriage, narrow-minded, malicious, and greedy.
During a pleasure cruise on the lotus pond, when the fake young mistress had a liaison with an outsider, Gu Qiurong went to great lengths to cover for it, only to be suspected of wanting to ruin the fake young miss's purity, earning herself the reputation of a vicious and naturally wicked soul.
Countless such incidents had occurred during the two years after she was recognized and brought back to the Marquis Estate.
The family members she had tried so hard to please shifted from eyes full of pity to disappointment, and finally to hatred deep in their bones.
They felt she was a disgrace to the Marquis Estate's reputation and that she failed to appreciate the importance the Marquis Estate placed on her.
If they had known it would come to this, why bother bringing her back to trace her ancestry at all!
The capital was like an airtight cage. Every step she took was cautious, yet she still inched step by step into the abyss Gu Lingwei had crafted for her.
On the night of the Lantern Festival that year.
Gu Qiurong was framed for hiring an assassin, leaving Gu Lingwei on the brink of death.
Charged with murder, she was sent to the imperial prison by her own flesh and blood.
Her biological father, the Pingding Marquis, had declared, "A stupid, ignorant, cheap-boned wretch, you belong in the imperial prison to learn your lesson properly!"
Her eldest brother, Gu Wangci, eyes filled with hatred, had said, "I never imagined you were born wicked. Weiwei never harmed you in the slightest, yet you cannot tolerate her!"
Her second brother, Gu Junbiao, eyes bloodshot, had roared, "If Weiwei dies, I will make you pay with your life!"
Three years had passed, but the pain of being despised and abandoned by her closest kin still pierced her heart like a needle.
When she was first recognized and brought back to the estate, she thought she had found family and finally had someone to rely on.
When framed for murder, her grievances were met with utter disbelief.
Those people in the Marquis Estate had personally shattered Gu Qiurong's last shred of illusion regarding familial affection.
In the pitch-black, sunless dungeon, the jailers had hovered like beasts, staring at her with stomach-churning, predatory gazes.
Seizing their chance, they pinned her beneath them, desperate to ruin her purity.
They stole her food, tore her hair, and scratched her face to shreds.
Had Qingzhi not fought desperately to protect her, she would have died in the dungeon long ago.
"Young Miss, the Gu family carriage is here!" Qingzhi's joyful voice interrupted Gu Qiurong's thoughts.
Gu Qiurong raised her eyes and spotted in the distance the luxurious, ornate carriage bearing the Gu family token.
The carriage stopped before the imperial prison, and the Marquise, Chen Wenjin, was helped down by Mammy Li at her side.
The Marquise was as opulent and graceful as ever. "Has she been brought out yet? Go urge the jailers; the three-year term is up today."
Seeing this, Mammy Li stepped forward to assist, but a low, hoarse voice rang out from the side, "Is the Madame looking for my young mistress?"
Recognizing Chen Wenjin, Qingzhi was overjoyed.
Startled by the blood-stained Gu Qiurong in her prison garb, Chen Wenjin turned pale instantly.
"W-Who are you?!"
Qingzhi hurriedly brushed Gu Qiurong's messy locks behind her ear, revealing her pale, delicate face.
Taking in her features and silhouette, Chen Wenjin felt her breath catch in her throat. "Y-You are Qiurong?"
Tears poured down her face as she looked at Gu Qiurong's desolate, battered state, her heart breaking as if sliced by a knife. "My good child, how... how did you end up like this?"
After all, this was her biological daughter, a piece of flesh torn from her own body.
Gu Qiurong forced a smile, but her lips were so parched that they split open, blood instantly welling up.
"Isn't this what Mother wanted to see?"
When they threw a young girl not yet of age into the imperial prison, did they have no idea what kind of fate awaited her?
Gu Qiurong's eyes were pitch-black, carrying an eerie gleam.
Back when she was barely holding on in the dungeon, she had once had a dream.
In the dream, after being released from prison, she believed the Marquis Estate would feel a shred of guilt and remorse for the terrible wrongs she had suffered.
Yet they did not.
The people of the Marquis Estate treated her even more harshly than before.
They orchestrated everything to utterly ruin Gu Qiurong's reputation throughout the capital.
Gradually, she was forgotten by everyone.
They locked her away in a dark, hidden room, leaving her to fend for herself and die.
Her biological father and brothers all viewed her as filth. To the outside world, they claimed she had grown up away from home without discipline, and that the Marquis Estate was already being benevolent by acknowledging her at all.
The thought of that ending made Gu Qiurong's blood run cold.
She would never repeat the same mistakes.
"Rongrong..."
The young girl's face was deathly pale, fresh blood staining her lips, looking somewhat terrifying. Remorse surged endlessly in Chen Wenjin's heart, and her tears fell even more violently. "It's all Mother's fault. Mother failed to protect you."
"Rongrong, you've suffered."
She pulled the emaciated girl into her arms, weeping with red-rimmed eyes.
"Good child, just sign the confession. Your father and brothers said that as long as you sign the confession, you are still our family's child. Once we return home, your parents will do everything they can to make it up to you."
As Chen Wenjin wiped her tears, Mammy Li produced a pre-written confession from the side.
Gu Qiurong cast a sideways glance at the document, a scornful laugh escaping her throat.
"Madame!" At the sight, Qingzhi dropped to her knees before Chen Wenjin. "Young Miss has been wronged! She suffered all manner of humiliation in the dungeon and refused to confess, because the one who murdered the Fourth Young Miss back then was never my young mistress!"
"Qingzhi."
Just as Qingzhi attempted to explain to Chen Wenjin, Gu Qiurong cut her off, her voice biting cold.
"No need to say more."
From the very day they cast her into the imperial prison, any family ties she had with the Marquis household were utterly severed.
She had made the wrong choice in her dream; this time, she would not repeat her past self's folly.
The very first thing she would do upon leaving this prison was to break ties with the Marquis Estate entirely.